Businesses have been urged to hand 40pc of senior jobs to women in order to hit Government-backed diversity targets to have them holding one third of executive and board-level jobs by 2020.

The recommendations come from the Hampton-Alexander review, an independent diversity study that is backed by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. 

The review, which was launched last year and is intended to report annually until 2020, also suggested that the voluntary target should be extended to all FTSE 350 companies, having previously only applied to the FTSE 100.

Women on boards - FTSE 100 best performers

Sir Philip Hampton, the former chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline who is chairing the review, said that without continued focus, any progress could “plateau”.

The number of women on FTSE 100 boards has more than doubled since 2011, but still remains at around 28pc.

Sir Philip said that the pace of appointments needed to speed up. “We need an appointment rate of 40pc if we are going to hit the target,” he said, adding that after an initial flurry of activity following the previous Davies campaign in 2011 to increase female representation on boards, progress had slowed.

Women on boards - FTSE 100 worst performers

“This year we have seen progress pick up on FTSE 100 boards and go slow elsewhere,” he added. “We must now renew commitment to this important issue for UK business to fully harness the underutilised potential of the many talented women in the workplace.”

Margot James, the Government’s business minister, said: “We have seen time and time again that our most successful companies are those that champion greater diversity and inclusion, and our largest companies are stepping up their efforts on this issue in order to reap both the societal and economic benefits.”